7

The mem­ory fades, the pain lev­els: 7 years ago today a lot of us lost our inno­cence. 7 years ago today, it seems both like a life­time away and an instant.

But today, I can say that I got past most of the funk. Sure, I still look up in the sky when a plane flies lower than expected; Sure, I still get some chills down my back when I get close to ground zero; but, for the most part, I can go about my life with­out being reminded of what happened.

Today, my con­cerns have evolved: it’s more about build­ing a bet­ter future for the gen­er­a­tion born after 2001, that of my son, than it is about dwelling on that hor­ri­ble and unfor­tu­nate date.

But today is also a time for reflec­tion: there is still only a con­struc­tion site on ground zero, the result of wran­gling by dif­fer­ent fac­tions about what the place should be: it may be weari­ness on my part but maybe the best way to honor the dead would be to put your own agenda aside and try to fig­ure out where the com­mon ground is. Whether you were affected directly, through the loss of friends and loved ones, or indi­rectly (and, let’s face it, most of us in the USA were affected at least indi­rectly), a way to cel­e­brate might be to reach out to some­one you gen­er­ally wouldn’t and try to under­stand what ground you share.

7 years ago, New York­ers pulled together. 7 years ago, we were all as one but some­where along the way, the coun­try went back to being apart. Why not make today a day to bring all of us together again as New York­ers, as Amer­i­cans, as mem­bers of the human race.

In Memo­riam: Car­los Dominguez, Mark Ellis, Melissa Vin­cent, Michael DiPasquale, Cyn­thia Giugliano, Jeremy Glick, David Hal­der­man, Steve Wein­berg, Ger­ard Jean Bap­tiste, Tom McCann, David Vera.